Small Woodlands and Trees in Traditional Agricultural Landscapes of Slovakia

Abstract

The studies focused on distribution and characteristic of small woodlands and trees as a typical feature of traditional agricultural landscapes (TAL) in Slovakia are missing or are rather local. The source data for this study was obtained from the national inventory of TAL performed in 2010-2012 in Slovakia, where woody vegetation was considered as one of the landscape elements creating mosaic of TAL. Based on the types of woodland present, which endow the landscape with a distinctive character and structure, we have divided TAL into five subtypes: 1) TAL with low occurrence of woodland -not more than 10 % of the site covered by woods, 2) TAL with spatial woodland formation, 3) TAL with solitaire trees dominant, 4) TAL with lines of trees or shrubs dominant, and 5) TAL with small woodland dominant.The proportion of woodland was relatively low, as TAL with low occurrence of woodland (36 %) was the most extended subtype of TAL. The most common dominant woodland structure was lines of trees and shrubs, with significant occurrence in TAL of arable-land and grassland and TAL with dispersed settlement. They tended to occur on typical agrarian relief forms. Our evaluation was supported by statistical analyses focused on the relationships between woodland type on agrarian relief forms (mostly balks) and their biotic and abiotic characteristics (type of agrarian relief form, content of skeleton, width, height, its continuity, as well as continuity of wood cover)